As we saw last time, where and when you are born has a massive impact on who you become. But, I know there are many of you who believe that it is up to each of us individually to make decisions in our life that affect its outcome. To a certain extent, that's true, but it's not an absolute truth. We in the West, in the so-called advanced, industrialized world, like to think that everything that happens after our birth is simply a matter of the choices we make in life. Make the wrong ones, you have a bad life; make the right ones and life is good. This is, of course, pure and utter nonsense, because it ignores everything we talked about last time. The choices one makes cannot be seen in isolation from when and where you were born to begin with. Let me explain.
We can take me as an example. I don't mind. I was born and raised in a humble but secure environment. There was a feeling of excitement and optimism for the future. My family, the church, and the school all impressed upon me the hope for a better future. All I had to do was stay in line, obey authority, look out for myself, and work hard and I would have a good life, mostly likely a better life than my parents.
But let's say, just for contrast, that I was born in Sub-Saharan Africa instead. Now I find myself in an impoverished and hostile environment. There's a feeling of desperation and the future is as far away as the next meal. I'm surrounded by family, my tribe perhaps, but there's no school, a traditional religious establishment to impress anything on me, for everybody's doing everything they can to stay alive. I have little choice but to stay in line, adhere to the established hierarchy, and looking after myself means struggling day and night to survive; there is no harder work. And what is going to change? Very little, if anything, and whatever change happens will be slow in coming.
Do you really think that these two me's will be making the same life decisions? If you do, you are in serious need of a reality check. My circumstance of birth, where and when I live growing up, all impact to a large extent which choices I can make, which decisions I'm even confronted with. I don't think this should be all that hard to understand, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, it apparently is, for when I hear acquaintances, friends, strangers on the street or talking heads on the TV, they can't have taken this simple fact into consideration. They spout their platitudes of self as if they were universal principles of life. They're not.
This is not to say that there are individuals who do manage to escape their environment and themselves. I have the greatest respect for them. But to assume that if one person can do it then anybody can do it is simply foolish and naive. One person wins an Olympic gold medal, then anyone can win one, but not everyone can. In this case, not only your own physical disposition plays an important role, but so does your opportunities for training, access to the right people and contexts, and sponsors of all kinds. It's not just the desire of the individual; there are a wide range of factors and decisions and, yes, downright luck that go into it. For every single gold medalist, we should remember, there are 1,000 ruined existences of those who tried and did not succeed. Their failure cannot be attributed only to their individual decisions. Too many people and too many circumstances were involved to justify such a simplistic view of reality.
The circumstances of your birth and your environment may not be to blame for who you end up becoming, but to act and believe as if they had no influence at all is disingenuous.
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